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It has been a long, good day, despite the Cubbies being shut out by Cleveland. I drew up a storm, wrote my usual Title Tuesday feature for Poets All Call on Facebook, and spent about three convivial conversational hours with my friend Clottee Hammons. (She will be showcased in a blog post in the near future.) I saw A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING on DVD, and it had a few nice, refreshing moments in it, and a nice chemistry between the two romantic leads. And after a strong final hour of effort, the above drawing, though far from just-right, is right enough right now to fit in with the others, and is improvable later.

So Good Night, Good Friends, wherever you are. Sweet dreams and sweeter tomorrows.

 

 

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My friend, the superb pastel artist and physician Beth Lindberg, responded to my question at the end of the last Feathers blog post, “More Feathers, anyone?” with “Yes, more feathers!” Here are six more now. Many more will follow.

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I had so much luck and fun with the Inktober 1-6 image montage that another seemed worthwhile, especially with hours and hours of more inking under my recent-drawing belt. Also, the pigeons outside my apartment continue to shed their delightful, miraculous feathers.

There’s a featherlike smudge on the lower right border. Unintentional, and easily eradicable in MS Paint, but it’s such a fit accident that it demands to stay.

As for “mo,” it follows the formula of starting to spell out what will be the title of the image montage. The three other panels will be “re,” “feat,” and “hers.” More Feathers, anyone? 🙂

 

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Here is a bit of wordless storytelling. The viewer is not given a whole lot to go on, and what there is is strange. There seems to be sadness and perhaps resignation. The title hints that the venue is not Planet Earth. There are odd juxtaposes and transparencies.

Pop quiz, class: What’s the story here? Any answer at all will do. If you think of a story that makes the image make sense, give yourself a gold star and an A. For extra credit, post your story in the Comments section . . . and if there are at least six comments, I will add mine. No pressure, though!

Months ago I told my then-co-worker Jarron, “You’re next.” I was referring to my portrait project.

Things happened. Jarron left the circus of Matt’s Big Breakfast. Rumors flew. Something about the Light Rail.

More recently, Gwen of Mid-City Kitchen has asked to be portraitized–and Jarron (jaf131 on Instagram) “Liked” one of my Instagram photos. So I can’t do Gwen till I’ve done Jarron. Here he is.

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“I fear for this country,” I told Isabelle, the French-Canadian lady who sat two chairs down from me while we watched the Los Angeles Dodgers shut out the Chicago Cubs on a TV screen at an English-style pub called The George & Dragon, where we had just met. “I fear for the world,” she replied.

We are fearful in large part because one of the candidates in this year’s Presidential election is Donald J. Trump, real estate mogul, demagogue, hate-monger, and misogynist. He attained prime candidacy through a take-no-prisoners campaign riddled with lies and extravagant, baseless promises. He has promised to forbid all Muslims from entering the United States. He wishes to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. He promises to “bomb the shit” out of ISIS, “collateral damage” or not. He viciously attacks his opponent Hillary Clinton, often by attacking her husband, former president Bill Clinton.

How can he get away with all of his lies and meanspiritedness? He exploits the sad fact that many of us have come to distrust the corruption at the core of Washington politics in general, and Ms. Clinton in particular. Many of us think Hillary Clinton is an even more despicable character than Trump. Many of us look at her erased e-mails; her lack of support for those left to die at Benghazi; her six-figure speaking fees tendered by Goldman Sachs; her war-hawk tendency that led her as a senator to vote in favor of the Iraq invasion; her championing of the rights-infringing Patriot Act; and then many of us then say anyone but her.  Consequently this election may be viewed as a no-win situation.

As for me, I have voted for Clinton, though I did not want to. My choice would have been Bernie Sanders, but Sanders has no chance to win. My vote is against Trump. He has proven to be a misogynistic, hate-mongering megalomaniac. His hypocrisy extends to the exploitation of Bill Clinton’s sex scandal, while his own checkered past has left plenty of circumstantial evidence of misconduct. But the main reason I am voting for Clinton is when I imagine the possible futures with President Trump, and then the possible futures with President Clinton, the latter seems to offer some hope of unity and healing, while the former seems much more dangerous, even apocalyptic.

The above political image is a vote against what Trump stands for. He is isolationist and at the same time hypocritical. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! is his campaign slogan, yet he has no interest in those actions and ideals that DO make America great. His America does not want “your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” His is not a helping hand, but a grasping one.